


The Disappointment

by Ellenar_Ride



Series: Mending Links [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Mending Links 'Verse, Minor has Secrets, Minor is a sad duckling, and also self-esteem issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-01-30 12:00:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21427879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellenar_Ride/pseuds/Ellenar_Ride
Summary: Minor dreads the day Major realizes the truth. That Minor is just a failed imitation, a distorted copy, a weak reflection in a shattered mirror. He can picture that gaze—one warm and friendly eye in rich blue, one milky blue-white eye just a little off-target, a little lazy and unresponsive—with perfect clarity. In his mind's eye, Minor sees it play out. That friendly eye turns cold and Major denounces him for a failure.(Prompt: Winners and Losers)
Series: Mending Links [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1545610
Comments: 11
Kudos: 41





	The Disappointment

Meeting Sav is the best thing to happen to Minor in his entire (admittedly short) life.

It's still weird to think of himself as Minor. He was Link (or various demeaning insults) up until he met Sav, who is also properly called Link. For obvious reasons, they needed new names—so Sav called him Sapling, and he called Sav Oak (or Ancient Oak, when he was feeling bratty). Sometimes they still use those names, but they're personal. Private. When they other Links started arriving, they needed something else. So Sapling became Minor and Oak became Sav.

To be fair, there isn't anything else to compare their meeting to. Not really. He grew up in the forest with a grand total of one friend, failed to save his guardian, risked his life a lot, got stuck in magic naptime land for seven years against his will, risked his life some more, and got stabbed through the chest with an absurdly huge sword. But awful experiences aside, Minor regards meeting Sav as one of his most precious memories

It's just a shame that his worst memory comes as a direct consequence. See, if Minor never appeared in Sav's home, he never would have met Major. It's not that he dislikes his alternate self. Far from it. He admires the man, the oldest Link of the lot and still one of the most capable even blind in one eye.

No, Minor's worst memory is the realization that Major is his _alternate _self, not his _older _self. Because Major fought Ganondorf a long time ago, and he _won. _He _lived. _He doesn't have a perfectly straight scar down the center of his chest, collarbone to hip, from a sword that weighed more than he did that shattered his ribs, ruined so many organs, only barely missed his spine. He didn't spend a month drinking his weight in potions with fairy visitors every day. He doesn't have to massage potion-laced lotion into his back and chest twice a day to keep the skin from pulling so tight he can't move.

Major is a hero. He won. Minor isn't. He lost. But Major hasn't realized yet. Major still thinks Minor is his successful past self, a hero, victorious. Major looks at him with pride and warmth, if a bit of confusion. That's okay. Their situation is weird enough for the others, who don't even have to deal with a literal copy of themselves.

Minor dreads the day Major realizes the truth. That Minor is just a failed imitation, a distorted copy, a weak reflection in a shattered mirror. He can picture that gaze—one warm and friendly eye in rich blue, one milky blue-white eye just a little off-target, a little lazy and unresponsive—with perfect clarity. In his mind's eye, Minor sees it play out. That friendly eye turns cold, and Major denounces him for a failure. He won't hurt him, not physically—he doesn't need to, and Major is too good to strike even so terrible a child as Minor.

No, all Major has to do is sneer. Turn his back. Snipe and scold and scorn. Maybe even tell those Minor's failures have hurt the most—Myth and Wash and Wander. Those who come after him, who have to clean up the mess he's made. It's not fair for anyone, much less them, but there's nothing Minor can do about it now. He's already lost. It's already been decided.

The only one who knows is Sav. Oak. Ancient Oak, who first met Sapling when he had a massive sword through his chest. Who helps rub lotion into his scar twice a day because he can't reach his own back. Who has seen Major without a shirt on more than once (laundry day leads to a truly ridiculous amount of clothing-related shenanigans) and _knows _the supposed older version lacks that defining scar.

It's even more prominent now that Ms. Purah has refined her anti-aging rune and returned his body to its proper state. He's smaller now, nine instead of sixteen, but the scar is still the same—now it stretches up over the skin of his shoulder, down the front and back of his right thigh halfway to the knee. There's no damage to the muscle or bone—they were unhurt to begin with. But skin is stretchy. Skin shifts. The scar, already existent, moved and adjusted and resituated on his body.

Minor _hates _that scar. Not because it's ugly (though it _is)_, not because it hurts (though it _does),_ not even because it seizes up like stone and prevents him from leaning or bending forward or backward if he forgets to treat it even once (though that's a huge downside). No, Minor hates the scar because it symbolizes the thing he hates most about himself: his inadequacy. His failure. His loss to Ganondorf.

He doesn't begrudge Major his victory. He's not _that _petty, even if he is young and selfish. He just wishes, so much it _aches, _that he could have won, too. That he could have made the world a safer, easier place for those who came after. That he didn't have to subject Myth, Wash, and Wander to their miserable eras.

At the same time, Minor _does not want _to be like Major He doesn't want to live through whatever horrors put those shadows in his eye (and made the other milk-white and sightless). It's childish, it's cowardly, but he doesn't want it. No, Minor wants to be like Oak. The one who found a dying stranger and spent weeks saving him, whose response to learning a sixteen-year-old boy was actually a nine-year-old boy was a hug and a hair ruffle and a cheery _Sapling is right, huh?_

The day he told Sav the truth was also the day he started growing his hair out. It's decently long now, though nowhere near as long as his mentor's. It's a little way he can be like his mentor. The only way he can.

**Author's Note:**

> Oof, welcome back to the angst train. They'll probably all be angsty, to be honest—I like angst, and the series is called _Meeting the Broken Links_ for a reason.
> 
> But Minor, baby, no! You're a tiny little duckling, you're not supposed to be this sad! Go find Sav!
> 
> NEW LINKS  
Wash - "New Hero of Hyrule" (LBW)  
Wander - Hero of Hyrule (LoZ/AoL)
> 
> *Insert obligatory rant about chronology and the "new" hero coming before the "original" hero here*


End file.
